Confession

[pstephens46]

I had my lower unit in the garage this week. Replaced seals and water pump. Pressure test looked good. Excited to get home early today and bolt it back on and run on muffs. Still had plenty of daylight and all went smooth.

Started right up as always.

Hmmm. Odd whirring noise. Turned it off. Cranked it back up. Still there.

Then it hit me like a bolt of lightning....

I forgot to refill the lower unit oil......

It was sitting there on table where I left it last night.

[Jason2tpa]

We're all bound to mistakes. Even the knucklehead ones. But more importantly, kudos for having your ear fine tuned to notice the engine sounded fishing, and diagnosing the issue. That's pro level goods.

[TownsendsFJR1300]

No lube / dryness, when needed is not good nor comfortable!!

How long did it run before being turned off?

[pstephens46]

Ran about 15 seconds. Filled it up with oil and sounds fine now.

[TownsendsFJR1300]

You should be good....

Ask CS how long you can run W/O lower unit oil....

[robert graham]

Bearings probably/hopefully had enough residual oil on them to prevent any damage....and with no load on motor should be no problem...

[rodbolt17]

no load at idle speed?
that case would run hours with no damage just on the residual lube.
it is also why I got in the habit on anything that needs oil, once I drain it I tag it if I have to do other things.

[pstephens46]

no load at idle speed?
that case would run hours with no damage just on the residual lube.
it is also why I got in the habit on anything that needs oil, once I drain it I tag it if I have to do other things.

Yes. I thought about tagging last night. Will do so moving forward.

[pstephens46]

You should be good....

Ask CS how long you can run W/O lower unit oil....

Thought about Solo too! I damn sure greased the shaft bushing!

[boscoe99]

My friend runs an airplane maintenance shop. Customer left his airplane at the shop for an oil change and other routine work. The deal was for the shop to return the airplane across the field to the customers tie-down spot once the maintenance was done.

Customer went to use the airplane and upon checking the oil the sump was found to be empty. The airplane had been started and run without oil for the amount of time that it took to taxi the airplane from one side of the field to the other side. Customer was distraught. Fortunately no damage ensued.

Motors can be extremely resilient. I once upon a time removed the oil line to the number two cylinder of a big block HPDI and ran it in a test tank for about thirty minutes at as high a power setting as I could stand (noise/smoke/etc.). I wanted the cylinder to fail. Could not get it to fail. Compression was still good. No damage to the cylinder walls could be seen. Guess it just continued to run just fine on the residual oil that was in the motor.